This is an Olivaceous Piculet, a mini “woodpecker”. While common, they are difficult to see and certainly to photograph. They do not drill holes, per se, as we see other woodpeckers do. Rather they chose limbs with loose or dead bark and break the bark loose to expose ants and termites underneath. They then use their tongues to gather them up.
Olivaceous Piculet
Country Costa Rica
Location Cano Negro, CR
Gender Male
Age Adult
Activity Feeding in the Wild
- Created Timestamp05/04/2019 12:14:44
- CameraCanon EOS 5D Mark IV
- Aperture5.6
- Focal Length700
- Iso1250
- Shutter Speed1/1600
- Orientation1
There’s a lot of interesting things going on in the Piculet pic. Tongue, ant, big eyeball. Nice and sharp, too. Great shot!
Congrats on your win!!! Well deserved. I remember just trying to see the Piculet was tough enough.
Great photo. Congratulations!
Congratulations- an award winning photo!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments. A little backstory about this shot: One of our favorite places in Costa Rica is the town of Cano Negro. We often stay at Hotel del Campo, with its delightful 3-4 acre grounds. During one of our stays there, May of 2019, the owner of the lodge told us that a pair of these Piculets had build a nest on the grounds. The nest was high in the canopy, but the birds were actively feeding in the surrounding trees. Because of their feeding habits, I decided to set up the camera on a tripod… Read more »
Congratulations, a well deserved winning image. Rebecca in NZ